Reform UK’s leader in Wales resigned this afternoon after being arrested on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour, dealing a fresh setback to Nigel Farage’s party.
Dan Thomas was absent from today’s First Minister’s Questions at the Senedd, the Welsh parliament. A Reform UK spokesman had earlier said he would miss the session for “personal reasons”.
Announcing his departure, Mr Thomas said he had been “reported to the police and was released without charge”.
He maintained that he had done nothing wrong, but said he did not want the attention surrounding his arrest to overshadow Reform’s work in Wales.
Gwent Police told Our News Outlet this afternoon that a 45-year-old man from the Aberbargoed area had been arrested on Sunday, September 13.
The force did not identify the man, but said he had been detained “on suspicion of assault and engaging in controlling/coercive behaviour”.
Police added that the man had been “bailed pending further enquiries”.
Dan Thomas said in a statement: “With deep regret, I am now standing down from this position due to personal reasons”
Mr Thomas, who was born in Wales and previously led Barnet Council as a Conservative, defected to Reform UK in summer 2025
In his statement, Mr Thomas said: “It has been the honour of my life to have been the leader of Reform Wales and see this party go from zero to 34 elected members and become the largest opposition group in Welsh history.
“With deep regret, I am now standing down from this position due to personal reasons.
“Over the weekend, I was reported to the police and was released without charge. I stress that I have done nothing wrong, but I do not want the coming headlines to be a distraction from the fantastic work our Senedd team is doing in holding this government to account.
“I will continue to serve my constituents in Casnewydd Islwyn [Newport and Islwyn] and will fully back whoever the group selects as its next leader.”
Nigel Farage’s party is already facing scrutiny over a series of financial stories, most recently after crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne stunned the political establishment by announcing at the weekend that they would each give Reform £36million – the largest single donations ever made to a British political party.
Reform’s deputy leader in Wales, Helen Jenner, deputised for Mr Thomas at the Senedd. She challenged the Plaid Cymru First Minister over yesterday’s meeting with fellow nationalist leaders from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Mr Thomas was born in South Wales before moving to London for his career, where he climbed the political ladder to become the Conservative leader of Barnet Council between 2019 and 2022.
He defected to Reform UK in the summer of 2025, before quitting as a London councillor in December that year and returning to Wales with his family.
He told a party event in Newport he had ‘fond memories’ of growing up in Wales and did not want to leave when he turned 18.
‘But for many Welshmen and women, good opportunities in Wales are few and far between,’ he said.
‘The well paying jobs and the high flying career paths are simply not there. So I left to build a successful career in financial services in London while serving my new community as a councillor and council leader.’
He led Reform to a breakthrough result in Wales, becoming leader of the opposition with 34 Reform AMs.
But the party fell short of their stretch goal of taking the Welsh Parliament, with Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth securing the top job.
Mr Thomas’s predecessor as Welsh Reform leader, Nathan Gill, was imprisoned last year for accepting bribes to give pro-Russian speeches
In a further blow to Reform Wales, AM Sarah Cooper-Lesadd defected to Plaid Cymru today
Reacting to his resignation, the Conservatives’ shadow Welsh Secretary Mims Davies said: ‘The dire state Reform in the Senedd finds itself in should be another warning of what could lie ahead if they were ever entrusted to run the national government. Dan Thomas MS was hand-picked by Nigel Farage MP to lead his party in Wales, yet within months their leader has had to stand down.
‘Reform are hitting the news for all the wrong reasons – massive crypto donations, on top of the jailing of Nathan Gill for pro-Russian bribery.
‘All this raises serious and deep questions about Reform’s judgement and leadership at every level.’
Nathan Gill, Mr Thomas’s predecessor as Reform’s Welsh leader, was jailed for over 10 years last November for taking tens of thousands of pounds in bribes to give pro-Russian speeches.
And in a further blow to Reform UK’s fortunes in Wales yesterday, one of their other Assembly Members defected to the Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru.
Sarah Cooper-Lesadd, who represents the Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg constituency, issued a damning statement accusing Mr Farage’s party of being ‘not serious about governing Wales’.
‘They are far more interested in division, opposition and headlines than in finding solutions. There is a real appetite in the group to want the government to fail, and no interest in what that failure would mean for the people we represent.’
The double-blow in Cardiff comes after a trialling few weeks for Mr Farage, who remains dogged by questions about donations and money.
At his party conference in Birmingham earlier this month, he was forced to suspend two of his most senior advisors who were caught in an undercover ‘illegal’ donations sting.
The Reform leader insisted no laws had been broken after undercover footage emerged of his aides, Dan Jukes and James Orr, discussing taking money from a fake US businessman.
